men; and then when we look around and see how unequal and how seemingly unjust is the distribution of this world's power and wealth among mankind, truly we feel a weakness for the doctrine of liberty and equality. We feel like preaching, ourselves, the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God, and we wonder, not that Socialists are so many, but that they are so few. Again, when we go on further to consider that between the starving pauper and the millions of the rich man stand the Church and State — the State with fetters in one hand and a drawn sword in the other, and the Church pointing to the symbol of Redemption and warning him: "Thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not even covet thy neighbor's goods;" why, no wonder the poor man, thus seemingly abandoned by God and Church and State, gets desperate and rebels; no wonder the French Commune has bathed France in the blood of the rich; no wonder the Anarchists have slaughtered the officers of the law in the streets of Chicago. No wonder, indeed, for just as when Adam and Eve rebelled against God the lower order of creation rebelled against them, so when the rich forget their duties to God and their neighbor, the poor very soon learn to forget their duties to the rich. Now it is the Church, and the Church alone, that can ever hope to effectually take her stand midway between the rich and the poor and bring about a peaceful settlement of their difficulties. This she is doing to-day; from that consummate statesman — the Holy Father — down to the lowliest assistant in the land — they are
